From the 1st March, Disney employees will be expected to go into the office four days a week.
Robert A. Iger, the CEO, stated that those who work from home will now be expected to “treat Monday through Thursday as in-person workdays.”
The ending of what Iger calls “hybrid” working seems strict in comparison with other companies, who offer their employees the opportunity to work two or three days from home.
Iger went on to say: “It is my belief that working together more in-person will benefit the company’s creativity, culture, and our employees’ careers.”
In the email sent to employees, Iger added: “Stay tuned for additional details.”
This fundamental organisational change comes less than 8 weeks after he came out of retirement to return to the company.
Aspire’s Global Managing Director, Terry Payne, said:
“Ultimately, every company must make its own decision about remote working – one size doesn’t fit all. But you would hope that Disney put careful thought into its remote working policy and broached the subject sensitively with employees, many of whom will value the flexibility resulting from the pandemic.
“Incidentally, our latest study into workplace trends shows that flexible working and work-life balance are the second and third most important job factors for candidates, after pay. Increasingly, people are choosing jobs depending on whether or not they can work remotely, whether that’s all or even just some of the time.”
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
